The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is an architectural framework for delivering Internet Protocol (IP) multimedia to mobile and other users. With the increasing variety of access networks and types of CPE providing IMS VoIP network services, troubleshooting customer complaints in CPE has become a serious problem. Currently, if there is a customer complaint as a result of a service outage, customer support must go through a painstaking and time-consuming effort to “manually” troubleshoot the source of the outage. One problem with manual troubleshooting is that it can be very difficult to fully understand the true nature of the customer complaint and also to understand the source of the problem. Another problem with manual troubleshooting is that it can be expensive because it often results in dispatching human service personnel to customer sites. Further, troubleshooting the customer complaint may erroneously indicate that the CPE is causing the issue, but the issue may not necessarily be with the CPE at all. A diagnosis pointing to the CPE may, in fact, be indicative of a symptom of a larger network problem.
An IMS VoIP network, also known as a “fast packet” network, is a telecommunications network allowing all digital, broadband, multimedia communications between calling and called parties. Fast-packet networks generally operate without real-time network control and with little or no operations system support. The existing operations systems are not particularly suited for use in fast-packet networks, at least not without modification.
New development work on operations systems for fast-packet networks has been based on the same operations architecture that has been used in the circuit switched network. That is, each fast-packet switch is interfaced directly with a family of operations systems. Thus operations system development for fast packet networks has been characterized with the disadvantages of high cost and inefficiency of circuit switched networks.
Currently in an IMS VoIP network, there is no quick way to validate a customer complaint that relates to a potential CPE problem. Such problems include no dial tone, ring-no-answer, call does not complete, no response from the network, and residential gateway (RG) is not working. In response to CPE related complaints, the customer support personnel execute expensive and time consuming verification procedures that require spending additional time interviewing the customer or dispatching repair personnel to the CPE site.
In many cases, a customer must report problems making a call to the IMS VoIP service provider. The service provider must then provide support in real time to try to determine where the problem is originating and how best to deal with it. While manual troubleshooting is taking place, the customer is out of service completely. Depending on the type of trouble, delay in return to service can be substantial. Worse, a problem could propagate to other areas of the network, resulting in a serious network outage.
There therefore remains a need for a cost-effective technique to identify and cure the source of problems in a CPE, while minimizing the above-described disadvantages.